Karen's Big Lie

Karen's Big Lie (6th Chapter)

Chapter 6- The Red 80

    I did not sleep very well that night. I had a dream about Andrew. In the dream, the weather was sunny and hot. Except at Mommy's. The street in front of the little house was full of snow and slush. And the sky was gray. Andrew ran outside barefoot. He bagan to wade around in the freezing slush.

 "Andrew, stop!" I yelled. " You are going to catch a cold."

"I will not!" he replied. "Anyway, I am just copying you Karen."

After he said that, I woke up. I did not know what that dream meant.

    Ms.Colman gave our quizzes back on Friday morning. I had been hopping she would wait awhile. Or maybe she would forget about them. When Hannie had started talking about the quizzes.

   "I have been studying," she said.

 "Linny has been helping me with my flash cards." ( Linny is Hannie's older brother.)

 "But you already know your facts," I said."You got a 93."

  "A 93 is not one hundred," Hannie replied. "Besides, I till need to know my facts faster."

"If only Ms. Colman did not time us," I said. "That is why the wuizzes are so hard. I cannot think fast enough. "Have you looked at your flash cards?'' asked Hannie.

"Well,no. Not really," I admitted. " But I think the quizzes are unfair. I hope we do not have to take anymore."

"We will," said Nancy."Ms.Colman said so."

  I was in a bad mood by the time school began. And then Ms. Colman handed back our quizzes. Double bullfrogs. I pouted while I waited for her to put mine on my desk. When she did, I closed my eyes. Then I opened them. At the top of the page was a big red 80.

  Ms.Colman was still reading next to me. And was smiling. "Good work, Karen" she sad. " You did much better time. You must review your facts. Keep it up."

   An 80. That was a good grade. For a moment, I forgot how I had earned that 80. The truth is, I had not earned it at all. I had copied from Ricky. Well, mostly I had copied.  I had filled in the blanks myself, but almost all of those answer were wrong. And I had not been able to finish the quiz so those blank spaces at the end counted as wrong answers too. The rest of the answers were really Ricky's. Only 2 of those were wrong.

     I peeked over a Ricky's paper. Yup, he had gotten them wrong, plus a few others. At the top of his paper was a red 90. Ms.COlman had drawn a smiley face next to it. (She had not put a smiley face on my paper.) Oh, well. At least Ms. Colman had said, "Good work Karen,'' to me.She was not dissapointed. And nobody except me knew I copied from Ricky. So all I had to do was start looking at the flahcrds. Then I could an 80 by myself. Or maybe Icould even get a 90 and a smiley face. It was up to me. I promise myself that I will never copy from Ricky again.

   At recess that day. Hannie said to Nancy and me, " I got  94 on the second quiz. Maybe next time I will get a 95."

  "I got an 83,"said Nancy.

 "What did you get, Karen?" asked Hannie.

"Let's play hopscotch," I replied.

____________________COming Chapter 7-Flash CArds___________________